N7trn Annual Infrastructure Gap: Appraisers, Cost Engineers Seek PPP Arrangements

The Institute of Appraisers and Cost Engineers (IACE), a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has reaffirmed Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements as a vital mechanism for infrastructure financing and delivery, putting the country’s annual deficit at over N7 trillion.

At the end of its 2025 national technical conference in Abuja, IACE attributed the mixed success of PPPs to issues like cost overruns, delays, and financial viability concerns, identifying robust cost engineering  as key to unlocking the full potential of the partnerships.

The conference themed: “Optimising Cost Engineering, Valuation, and Engineering Economy for a Sustainable Future”, was hosted by IACE Chairman, Ike Iwenofu and chaired by the President of the NSE, Margaret Oguntala, while the lead presenter was Dr. Wilson Alli.

A communiqué released after the conference said the attendees  deliberated on the critical role of cost engineering, valuation engineering, and engineering economy, underscoring these disciplines as foundational tools for every engineer, essential for the profession’s relevance and sustainable endeavours.

According to the group, this necessitates their integration into engineering curricula to foster professional excellence, improve decision-making, achieve cost savings, and enable effective risk management for optimal project outcomes and reduce waste.

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“Participants acknowledged Nigeria’s persistent annual infrastructure deficit, estimated at over N7.1 trillion, reaffirming PPPs as a vital mechanism for project financing and delivery. Discussions highlighted the mixed success of PPPs due to issues like cost overruns, delays, and financial viability concerns. Robust Cost Engineering (CE) was identified as fundamental to unlocking the full potential of PPPs for Nigeria’s infrastructure transformation.

“Systemic weaknesses, including inadequate cost estimation, poor risk allocation, insufficient life-cycle costing, and misapplication of value engineering, contribute significantly to project failures.

“Cost engineering applies scientific principles and techniques, manages project costs through estimation, analysis, control, value engineering, and risk management, optimising costs throughout the project’s lifecycle for enhanced accuracy, savings, improved decision-making, and reduced execution risk,” the IACE added.

Besides, the organisation underscored the importance of prudent financial decision-making, highlighting the critical role of hedging and financial risk management in combating losses and mitigating uncertainties in capital-intensive projects.

The group said the integration of cost engineering, valuation engineering, and engineering economy to achieve sustainability was necessary, encompassing sustainable cost engineering, sustainable valuation, and sustainable engineering economy.

In the same vein, it underlined the strategic necessity for Nigeria to shift towards a credit-based economy to stimulate business activities and enhance profitability, requiring robust collaboration between monetary and fiscal policy authorities.

To strengthen the institutional and regulatory framework, it said that it should be mandatory that class-3 cost estimates for all projects above a defined threshold be verified by panels of experts from IACE, COREN, and NSE before approval by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC).

It also called for the establishment and maintenance of a national infrastructure cost database, managed by ICRC and IACE, requiring mandatory reporting from all public and private projects to ensure data availability and accuracy.

At the end of the conference, a total of 138 persons were inducted into the various sections of the institute, with 34 inductees from engineering economy; 47 from engineering valuation; 57 from cost engineering and invested eight persons with its Fellowship award.